


An Old Friend

by Haberdasher



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 05:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12269958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: An alumnus of Elsewhere University tries to hunt down an old friend from their college years.





	An Old Friend

Connecting with old friends after graduating from Elsewhere could be something of an ordeal. The whole fake name business makes it nearly impossible to track someone down by name alone, unless the alumnus in question threw it onto their social media profile as a middle name or alias, and few ever did. All you had to go by was faces, really. And you’d never been good at remembering faces.

But you know, you  _know_ you had a friend from back at Elsewhere that you would spend hours upon hours chatting with on lazy weekend days, and you're determined to meet them again.

You look on some pages for Elsewhere University alumni, see someone with their middle name listed as “Apple”, look at the profile picture. You think you remember that face.

You send a message asking politely if the two of you had been friends back at Elsewhere.

You wait a day, then two, without a response.

The third day comes, and the response you get is blunt:

“I don’t remember you at all. You must be thinking of someone else.”

...maybe you  _were_  thinking of someone else, then. You keep searching for fellow alumni, find one who used to go by Bassoon, feel that same sense of familiarity.

Get the same response.

It happens again with those who used to go by Gold, Hunter, Rose, Hummingbird... They all seem so  _right_ , when you learn their old names, see them in pictures, but all of them remember you only as an acquaintance at best.

You might have shrugged and forgotten the whole thing, had you not shortly thereafter received a letter inviting you to a class reunion. Quite a fancy letter, too, with a brightly-colored wax seal, the paper’s edges looking more like lace than paper, and impeccable calligraphy telling you exactly when and where to arrive.

You immediately write the date and time on your calendar with a thick red pen, vowing to attend, hoping that then you will be able to identify and reunite with your half-forgotten friend once more.

The days go by fast, and soon enough the date of your class reunion arrives. The drive takes longer than you remember, but eventually you see the old familiar woods, find the river that runs alongside campus.

The moment your car turns onto Elsewhere grounds, the realization hits you like a ton of bricks.

You park in the first spot you can grab and rush to the room that had been mentioned on that oddly-formal invitation, though the reunion itself was not supposed to begin for nearly an hour.

Only a few others were there, milling about. If you had been back on the highway, you suspect they would have all seemed like strangers to you. But here, now, you remember what to look for.

Eyes a bit too small. Mouth a bit too wide. Thumbnails colored a deep, dark red...

You spot them and walk over, slowly, still somewhat hesitant. What you now remember seems so strange that, even if it does seem to fill in some blanks, you can hardly believe your own mind...

But then they open their mouth, shooting you a smile so wide it almost hurts to look at, and say, “Albatross?”

You smile, and giggle, and nod, and still can’t quite believe yourself.

“It’s been so long, we really ought to talk- oh, and if anyone asks, I’m going by Charm now, okay? That’s who this used to be, anyway...”

You nod again, breaking out into a smile of your own, and murmur, to yourself as much as to the being standing before you, “It  _has_  been too long, my old friend, much too long...”


End file.
